Virgin of Guadalupe

Recently, I created a stained glass Virgin of Guadalupe with both contemporary and controversial contents.
I had been contacted by a client who collects contemporary art about the idea of creating a very original work, and immediately there was an exchange of images to understand his tastes and intentions.
At some point, among the various images the client provided for inspiration I received an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The representation of this Virgin Mary originates from Mexico and is venerated throughout South America. During my glass painting course in Colombia, I have seen many representations and I immediatelyliked it, so I decided to develop the project from this icon.
The client, however, required a transgressive work. At the beginning, I was asked to paint the Virgin wearing a gas mask, but I expressed my intention to keep the Virgin with a classic iconography instead creating a contrast with the background and with the surrounding angels.
A good customer leaves room for interpretation to the artist, and fortunately it was so.
With his directions I started to create the sketch.
In Christian culture, it is not uncommon to see armed angels, swords, bow and arrows, and spears that kill dragons. Certainly, from the reactions on my Facebook page, the idea of seeing them holding rifles and machine guns was conceived as transgressive, almost blaspheme but this was what my client wanted. In addition to this, the client wanted the angels to be tattooed and to wear Mexican narcos model balaclavas.

The making was very laborious, but also fun for an artist like me who likes to paint accurate details on his works. The making lasted more or less a month despite the height of this panel is less than a meter in height.

For lead weaving, I used very thin lead cames, some of which didn’t even reach 3mm in thickness, but my accuracy in the cuts allowed me to not have problems with the leading.

This work was mounted on a backlit lightbox, which I personally delivered. And with immense surprise, I discovered that it will be part of a collection in the company of a works by Andy Warhol and Damien Hirts. The client was very happy and promised to contact me for future collaborations.